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Security report for horizont.net

dfv Mediengruppe · Media · Germany

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

69/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

Horizont.net is a leading German-language online media platform focused on marketing, advertising, media, and technology news. Owned by dfv Mediengruppe, it offers comprehensive news coverage, multimedia content, and subscription-based premium services targeting marketing professionals, agencies, and media specialists. The website integrates multiple third-party services for analytics, advertising, and user consent management, reflecting a mature digital infrastructure. However, the site suffers from critical security shortcomings, including an invalid SSL certificate and lack of DNSSEC and CAA records, which expose it to potential security risks. Performance is suboptimal with slow load times and high resource usage. Privacy and cookie policies are present and GDPR compliant, supported by a consent management platform. Overall, Horizont.net maintains high content quality and user engagement but requires urgent security improvements to protect user data and enhance trust.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of horizont.net. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
43/ 100 · High
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

4 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Security headers

    Security headers are instructions your web server sends to every visitor’s browser. Missing ones leave visitors more exposed to attacks such as clickjacking and injected scripts.

    • High

      Missing Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • High

      Missing X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching horizont.net

This scan found 15 issues across 5 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

€25per month

  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
100
Security headers
35
Email security
50
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
43
Average
69

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention horizont.net, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
340
Employees
0
Customers
278
Third parties
62
Weak passwords
22%

9 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for horizont.net.

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Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Horizont.net holds a strong market position as a specialized media outlet for marketing and advertising professionals in Germany. Its business model combines advertising revenue with subscription services, including newsletters, e-papers, and exclusive content. The platform leverages partnerships with job portals, podcast providers, and subscription services to diversify offerings. The extensive use of analytics and tracking tools indicates a data-driven approach to audience engagement and monetization. The company is part of the dfv Mediengruppe, a significant media group, which supports its scale and reach. The site targets professionals in marketing, media, and technology sectors, providing timely news, expert commentary, and industry insights. Growth opportunities exist in improving technical performance and expanding premium content offerings.

Security posture

The current security posture of Horizont.net is moderate to low. While the site employs a consent management platform and adheres to GDPR requirements, it lacks a valid SSL certificate, which is a critical vulnerability that undermines secure communications. The absence of DNSSEC and CAA records further weakens domain security, increasing susceptibility to DNS spoofing and unauthorized certificate issuance. No advanced security headers or mechanisms like HSTS, OCSP stapling, or session resumption are implemented, which are standard best practices for modern web security. There is no publicly disclosed security policy or incident response information, indicating limited transparency in security governance. These gaps pose risks to user data confidentiality and site integrity, potentially impacting user trust and compliance with emerging regulations like NIS2.

Recommendations

  1. Immediately obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate supporting TLS 1.2 or 1.3 to secure all site traffic.
  2. Implement DNSSEC and CAA DNS records to enhance domain name system security and control certificate issuance.
  3. Enable HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload to enforce secure connections.
  4. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to mitigate common web attacks.
  5. Develop and publish a comprehensive security policy and incident response plan to improve transparency and preparedness.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a combination of JavaScript libraries including jQuery and slick-carousel for UI components, Piwik PRO and Piano for analytics and paywall management, and Usercentrics for consent management. Advertising is managed via Adition scripts. The site is hosted on IP 91.198.2.83 with no DNSSEC or CAA records, indicating basic DNS configuration. Performance is poor with a load time exceeding 23 seconds and over 400 resources loaded, suggesting optimization opportunities. Mobile optimization is good with responsive design and mobile-specific navigation. SEO is supported by structured data (JSON-LD) and Open Graph tags, enhancing content discoverability. The CMS is not explicitly identified but appears custom or proprietary. Technical risks include outdated or missing SSL configuration and heavy reliance on third-party scripts that may impact performance and security.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 75/100Medium27 findingsView report
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